Guest Post by Patty Blount

Stay or Go?

Things change. For some of these changes, we’ll camp out and line up a day in advance just for the chance to say we got it (iPhone, anybody?). And others die a lonely little death and we hardly notice. Here’s my list of the things that should stay and the things I wish would just go.

Stay!

• Social networking – My social activities not only planted the seed for a book idea, but connected me to many brilliant people – authors, agents, publishers, editors, celebrities, moms, PEOPLE. That’s the key – it exposed me to different opinions, different belief systems, different lifestyles and opened my mind in the process.

• Flat Screen TVs – Oh, how much do I love being able to hang a TV on a wall?

• The surge in popularity of YA fiction – Rowling, Meyer, Collins – It warms my heart to see adults reading young adult fiction and I hope my own book will add to the ranks.

• GPS – For someone like me who gets lost in a bathtub, the GPS is the most significant technological advancement of my lifetime.

• On Demand, HBO2Go, and DVR -- I work a nine or ten hour day and then come home and write novels. There is no time for TV. That’s why these VCR-less wonders that let me watch what I want when I want are the BEST.

• eReaders -- Writers love books. My eReader lets me carry hundreds with me at all times. Plus, it’s a lot easier to turn pages on an eReader when you’re pedaling an elliptical machine than a real book. That encourages me to actually go to the gym.

Go!

• Pants that expose boxers, pants with the crotch down by your knees, baggy pants that hang off your body instead of emphasizing it. I don’t know anybody who finds this sexy so stop. Just stop. Please. I’m begging.

• Logos on butts – Juicy? Pink? Ladies, guys don’t need another reason to stare at your butt. Really.

• Fake reality TV shows – please, Dear God, MAKE IT STOP.

• Teens who sit low in their cars so that it looks like the car is driving itself as they go by.

• Text slang in spoken conversation.

• Tebowing – I get that you feel blessed and that’s great. But put it in perspective. I find it kind of insulting that God answered your prayers to score that extra point in a game but ignored the prayers of millions of other people praying for things like cures for terminal illnesses, a place to live or a meal to eat.

What do you think? What fads are you crazy about? What fads are on your Can’t Wait Until They’re Gone list?